Todays polygamists, those living primarily in Utah, Arizona, and various other
surrounding areas, stretching even into Mexico and Canada, are gaining much notoriety
because of the terrible abuses inherent to these societies. These polygamists, who base
their practices on early Mormon belief, habitually force young girls below age eighteen
into polygamous marriages with much older men. I have seen this with my own eyes. My own
father, in 1974, at age 36, took as a plural wife a girl 16 years of age. It is laughable
to see the impotence of state and local government when it comes to dealing with this
particularly insidious form of child abuse. In the last 50 years, only one individual has
been successfully prosecuted for committing this despicable act. This individual is Tom
Green, the notorious Utah polygamist who was recently convicted of child rape. It is
astounding to see that only one man has been the recipient of criminal justice when
literally thousands of men are committing this very act routinely, with support of their
community, and under the apparent indifference of law enforcement officials from the level
of the common patrol officer to the Attorneys General of the states in which these acts
take place. This form of child abuse is receiving some attention in the press, but this is
not the only form of child abuse that routinely takes place in these societies. There are
also dangerous medical and health practices that are routine to these Mormon-based
polygamous societies. I would like to go into some detail about these practices that have
resulted in the destruction of various childrens health, and even death.

In Mormon-based polygamous societies, there is a common mistrust of the modern medical
industry. Large numbers of children born into these groups never receive immunizations of
any kind. When I was a child growing up in one of these groups, I witnessed waves of
destruction brought about by whooping cough. This disease ravaged the community I was
living in. Fortunately, my parents had converted to this lifestyle when I was seven years
of age, so I had previously been immunized. But many of my childhood friends became
afflicted with this dreaded illness. Many infants who had contracted the disease battled
impending death. I dont specifically remember any deaths taking place during this
wave, which took place in Pinesdale, Montana during the period between 1974 and 1977, but
the risk of this was very high. Adherents within these polygamous societies have an
unhealthy mistrust of modern medicine, as I have mentioned, and it is amazing that I
didnt see more health disasters take place than I did, but nevertheless, I have seen
more than my share of misery as a result of this dangerously backward belief system.

Mormon-based polygamists, who refer to themselves as Fundamentalist Mormons,
also practice their sacramental ceremonies a bit differently from the methods found in
wards within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Typically, in an average
non-polygamous LDS ward house, the water is distributed among the audience in small,
individual cups. But in the Mormon Fundamentalist sacrament meetings the water is
disbursed to the audience in large, one liter glasses. During the ceremony, each glass
touches the lips of 40-50 people. During the ceremony, bread crumbs inevitably accumulate
in the bottom of each glass until the last person gulps down the last of the water--bread
crumbs and all. This practice provides a breeding ground for hepatitis, which frequently
ravages entire congregations. Mormon-based polygamists are quite unable to deal with this
disease. Indeed, many adherents seem ignorant even of simple hygienic practices, such as
frequent hand washing, as methods by which to slow the spread of disease. To many, if not
most of these people, a gamma globulin injection is out of the question, even unknown as a
medical practice.

When I was eight years old, my older brother, who was twelve or thirteen at the time,
suffered a serious accident. He was in the attic of a family who had volunteered to
temporarily hold the belongings of another recently converted family, when he fell through
a trap door, landing approximately twelve feet below. He received a massive concussion. He
was taken to a bed in the house and the presiding apostle of the community was summoned. I
was allowed into the room where my brother had been taken and I witnessed a horrifying
scene. The apostle stood at the foot of the bed and instructed my parents as to how they
might care for my brother, who was writhing in agony, delirious, and vomiting profusely.
The apostle instructed my parents to hold my brother down and apply pressure to the
swollen areas of his head. This seemed to bring about severe pain on the part of my
brother and he struggled violently. They offered priesthood blessings as a means of
treatment for his severe head injuries. This struggle went on for hours until my brother
finally fell unconscious and completely exhausted. At no time during this ordeal did
anyone call an ambulance, or take my brother to a hospital. Indeed, he was never seen by a
medical doctor throughout the acute phase, or the ensuing recovery period.

My brother spent weeks in a darkened room after this accident. Even the weakest light
brought severe pain to his eyes. He kept complaining of the ringing in his ears. He
suffered immensely throughout this period. I have been profoundly affected by this
traumatic event. But my brother seems to have sustained injuries that have had a lingering
effect on him ever since. As an adult, I have spent countless hours contemplating this
event, and I have also studied a bit about traumatic brain injury, and the lasting effects
it can have on individuals who have suffered from it. My brothers life has been
tragic ever since. He displays disturbing personality problems that I have since learned
are common among people who suffered similar injuries as children. He lives a life of
uncontrollable alcoholism, destructive self-centeredness, a seeming lack of conscience and
many other severe and uncontrollable personality disorders. To this day, he has never
received a proper medical evaluation, and this incident has fallen into the web of secrecy
that surrounds the lives of Mormon-based polygamists.

The abuse that abounds in these polygamous communities is profound and extremely
widespread. The public has only heard bits and pieces of information about these
communities that have aptly been described as the American Taliban. Law enforcement has
inexplicably ignored these communities who are also known to stockpile weapons. Many who
are informed about the dangers of these polygamous societies have alleged that the
potential dangers involved in law enforcement intervention would bring about a situation
similar to what occurred several years ago in Waco, Texas. If the Mormon-based polygamists
were pushed in a similar, inept manner, I testify that the Waco incident would seem like
an independence day celebration in comparison. Mormon-based polygamous groups have been
allowed to practice their abusive craft for over one hundred years. They will not submit
to law enforcement easily. The potential for violence and loss of life is immense, but
certainly not inevitable. The central power structure within these factions needs to be
eliminated entirely, and swiftly. There are methods by which this can be achieved while
incurring a minimal level of violence. It is imperative that minimal violence should be
the goal if any action is to be taken against these offenders. The vast majority of the
members of these groups are helpless women and children who are today in a very dangerous
environment where indoctrination and isolation are a way of life. It is despicable that
the communities of Colorado City, Arizona; Hildale, Utah; and Pinesdale, Montana are
allowed to name their own law enforcement officers. In these communities, the offenders are
the police. Under the present circumstances, these abusive environments flourish and grow
steadily. The sooner the problems inherent to these polygamous communities are dealt with
by legitimate law enforcement, the less potential for violent conflict, which will
endanger the lives of many thousands of innocent children who are today suffering from
abuse. Procrastination on the part of government officials can be blamed for the
intensified gravity of the present situation. Refusal to take action immediately will only
make the problem worse for these helpless children.

I wholeheartedly endorse Flora Jessop as an extremely competent expert in matters
relating to Mormon-based polygamists. I urge all government officials to take this matter
as most serious. Ms. Jessop possesses a great deal of expertise and is indispensable to
the hope for these innocent children. I urge you all to take her words very seriously. The
American people are dangerously ignorant of the crimes taking place in these communities,
and Flora Jessop can provide the information that is so lacking. Please consider taking
immediate action for the sake of eliminating the enormous suffering that is taking place
right before our eyes.

To my knowledge, temple clothing used by Mormon Fundamentalists is identical to that
used in the LDS Church. I could be wrong on this. When I was a child, my parents bought
their long garments from the LDS Church, although they had been excommunicated in 1973. In
about 1980, the LDS Church stopped making long garments, however, and Owen Allred
appointed various relief society members as authorized crafters of these garments. It is
possible that some Fundies buy their temple clothing from the LDS Church, but I do know
that there are women in the Allred group (always women for this work) have been authorized
to make temple clothing. I am not aware of any alteration to the patterns used in making
temple clothing within the LDS Church since the nineteenth century, but this may be
something interesting to verify. Excellent question! They do call these costumes
"temple clothes". My memory of them is that they were white, with a green apron
embossed with fig leaf designs, just like LDS temple clothes. Like all LDS funerals I have
attended, the deceased in a Fundamentalist funeral is displayed in the casket in temple
clothing, without the hat.

I'm not sure how the other large Fundamentalist groups operate regarding temples, but
the Allred group has an "endowment house" in which they carry out their temple
ceremonies. It is on the same piece of property as the RCA (Rulon Clark Allred) building
in Bluffdale, Utah. The RCA building is where the Salt Lake area congregation assembles
for sacrament meeting and various other functions which include dances and even basketball
games. The RCA building was completed in the late 1970's and is visible from I-15, from
the far right southbound lane, immediately before the interstate starts to descend into
Utah County. The endowment house was formerly occupied by the caretakers of the RCA
building, and was converted in the early 1980's and dedicated to the function it now
serves. It is situated to the immediate west of the RCA building. The glass windows of
this structure have been boarded shut from the inside. I would imagine that the other
large polygamous groups have similar structures. Flora Jessop probably can tell of how the
FLDS group handles endowments.

The LDS Church, as you know, has eliminated significant portions of the endowment
ceremony. The Mormon Fundamentalists pride themselves in their insistance on not changing
anything, and their endowment ceremony is much longer than that performed in LDS temples.
I have not personally taken part in the ceremony, but I asked my mother many questions
about it as I was growing up. She told me that the endowment ceremony had been some eight
hours long during the time of Brigham Young. I assume from this that the Fundamentalist
endowment ceremony is also very long, like this. Although the Mormon Fundamentalists pride
themselves in their resistance to change, I have learned from my own research that their
lifestyles and beliefs are actually unchanged from the time of Brigham Young, and not
necessarily from the time of Joseph Smith. Whether they realize it or not, their version
of Mormonism has also been altered since the time of Smith. It was during the period
surrounding the Manifesto, and the ensuing two decades that they broke away from the LDS
Church. They are a culture that appears to be frozen in time from that period. I wish I
could provide more details about their endowment ceremonies, but I broke away before I had
the opportunity to participate. Interestingly, when my parents first converted to Mormon
Fundamentalism in 1973 (they had previously been very active LDS, married in the SL
temple), the Allred group did not have an endowment house. But my parents switched
immediately to the long garment style upon their conversion. During this period, the
Allred group was in a bit of a quandary since they did not possess an endowment house.
Many adults did not wear garments, having not been endowed, so their construction of an
endowment house in the early 1980's represented a very important development. Owen Allred
apparently received a "revelation" during this period in which he was instructed
to build the endowment house. I noticed that the older members wore the garments, even
though they had never been members of the LDS Church, and therefore had no previous access
to a temple. They had received their endowments before the "split" in the
1950's, when the Allred group broke away from the FLDS over a leadership dispute.

Also interesting, and part of this discussion, is the practice in which members of the
Allred group always kneel facing the Salt Lake temple when praying. They believe that the
Salt Lake temple is the most important temple within Mormondom although, for obvious
reasons, they are not allowed to enter. During family prayers among the Fundamentalists,
frequently included is an appeal that the "temple doors will be opened to all worthy
and righteous saints". They believe that Joseph Smith will return someday with Jesus
Christ, and that the Salt Lake temple will be returned to the Fundamentalists, as they see
themselves as the correct caretakers of the "keys to the priesthood".

Finally, you ask how I acquired such knowledge of the secretive Mormon Fundamentalists.
I was there. I was seven years old when my parents joined the Allred group and were
subsequently excommunicated from the LDS Church. I was hyper-curious as a child, and a
voracious reader, as I am now. I also have an extremely good memory. When I was growing up
I asked my mother endless questions about this new faction of Mormonism we had become a
part of. My parents had great hopes that I would grow up to be a Fundamentalist scholar
and they gave me numerous books to read. I read many books by Ogden Kraut and other
polygamous authors. I never forgot anything I studied at that young age, and many years
later as an adult, I started studying the forbidden (correct) history of Mormonism. In my
adult study I have found much information that I have been able to compare to what I
learned when I was growing up in polygamous society and I have been able to correlate much
of this forbidden information with what I learned as a child. I really have a unique
perspective now, having grown up first in the LDS Church, and later in Mormon
Fundamentalist society in a family where my father had four wives.

My ggg-grandfather was Levi Ward Hancock. He was born in 1803 in Massachusetts. He
notes in his autobiography that his family was "puritan stock," and indeed they
were. The Hancock family came from England in the 1630's. It's most notable member was
John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independance and first governor of
Massachusetts. But enough about them.

Levi Hancock joined the Mormon Church in 1830, the year the church was officially
organized. He was single at the time of his conversion, which came about after hearing a
sermon given by Parley P. Pratt. His parents and siblings also converted to Mormonism. He
met Joseph Smith in early 1831 and grew quite close to him. It seems that in 1833 they
agreed to an "exchange of women". Compton writes about this in his first chapter
of <i>In Sacred Loneliness</i>. Levi Hancock was interested in a young woman
who lived with Smith named Clarissa Reed. She was seventeen. Smith was interested in
Levi's niece; sixteen year old Fanny Alger. The arrangement was made, and Fanny's parents
were thrilled to have this connection with "the Prophet". Levi Hancock married
Clarissa Reed and in April 1834, their first child was born. They named him Mosiah Lyman
Hancock. He was my gg-grandfather. Mosiah Hancock became well known later as a prolific
missionary. He also married six women. Mosiah Hancock's daughter Clarissa married my
g-grandfather, Earnest Richard Bowles. The rest is history, and it is a history flavored
to the present with controversy. Compton credits Mosiah Hancock's autobiography as being
the best source of information we have on Fanny Alger.

Both Levi Hancock and his son Mosiah left brief autobiographies (both online). Levi's
story breaks off in an incomplete sentence in about 1836, but Mosiah's takes off from
there and the story of these two men is pretty fascinating. While I was reading these
stories I fit the events in with some things I had learned about my family as a child.
There is a tradition among the descendants of Clarissa Reed that she was one of Joseph
Smith's polyandrous wives. This has been difficult to prove, but there are several of her
descendants who insist that this was a fact. As a child I heard my father say that there
was a possibility that Mosiah Hancock was actually the SON of Joseph Smith! My father was
a great admirer of Mosiah Hancock and he did a bit of research on this ancestor and found
some people believing that this was so. One day I heard my father tell my mother that
"if this is true, our children have righteous blood in their veins!" At first I
didn't grasp the enormity of the situation. I was about eight years old and I had never
heard of Smith's polyandry. I remember thinking that I was disappointed that we no longer
had Revolutionary War heroes in our ancestry. I didn't want to be descended from Joseph
Smith even at that age. I had a great admiration for John Hancock (still do), and I was
not happy with Mormonism. I asked my mother about this a couple of years later, and she
dismissed it abruptly, saying only that there was a man in the LDS Church named Mckay
Smith who believed this. I sensed that she didn't want to discuss it, so I dropped the
subject, never mentioning it to anyone in the family again. But this event is very
significant, because it reveals that although polyandry is not practiced in today's large
polygamous groups, at least some of them acknowledge that Smith practiced it. It tells me
that MY parents acknowledged it! This is in sharp contrast to the LDS Church, where it is
never discussed, and probably hasn't been practiced since Smith's time. (Disclaimer: I
cannot state with authority that none of today's polygamists engage in polyandry. With
these people, anything is possible.)

I don't know if I'll ever know the truth about whether or not my gg-grandfather was
really Joseph Smith's son, through a polyandrous union. I was a lot happier with my
puritan ancestors!

Those of you who are familiar with my story will remember John Ray, the presiding
apostle in the small polygamous community known as Pinesdale, Montana. Ray was a young
favorite of Rulon Allred in the early 1970's. Ray was by far Allred's youngest apostle,
and possibly the most radical. I first met him in 1973 when he was 38 years old. I've
never known anyone in my life more charismatic than Ray. He converted my parents to Mormon
Fundamentalism, then took them to his Montana community. He was one of the few high
ranking priesthood members who actively pursued converts; and he found them in abundance
in Utah. Several of his converts would become his wives. When I knew him he had 12 wives
and about 65 children, including step-children. His was known to persuade LDS women to
leave their husbands to join his harem.

Ray was obsessed with alternative medicines and holistic practices. His followers
regarded him as a miraculous healer. They believed that he received divine inspiration at
will. When my older brother suffered a severe head injury, Ray instructed my parents not
to take him to the hospital, but instead to use his own brand of quackery which involved
applying direct pressure to the most painful areas of the injury. My brother was
completely delirious and had to be held down by several adults while my parents applied
pressure to the wounds. My brother was in agony and was vomiting all over the bed and the
people who were holding him down. Consecrated olive oil was applied liberally and
priesthood blessings were given (of course). Ray instructed them to do this for at least
3-4 hours before my brother finally collapsed and was taken home. I have described this
scene many times on this board, because it has been in my mind for over 25 years. My
brother has, since that incident displayed several very severe personality disorders. He
is irrationally self centered and immature. Today he is 41 years old. He has been
dangerously alcoholic since his teenage years. He has also abused cocaine to a level that
almost killed him.

John Ray left a trail of devoted admirers everywhere he went. He also left behind
numerous enemies. I am one of them. Ray was always involved in some sort of sceme and he
defrauded his converts out of every cent they had in order to finance his aggressive path
to fame. My own parents gave him thousands of dollars that they had managed to obtain from
selling their Salt Lake house. Ray had something cooking in Hawaii in 1977, and legend has
it that he left behind his huge polygamous family for the love of a single woman he met
there. But it goes even deeper than this. Ray apostatized and was never seen again by the
polygamists. His whole family was left to fend for themselves and most of his wives
married into other polygamous families. One of these women became my father's third wife.
She came into our family with three of Ray's children.

After Ray's apostacy, my parents returned to Salt Lake City to join the much larger
part of the Allred group. Pinesdale is still a polygamous town, hidden away at the western
edge of the Bitterroot Valley, in Montana. It has since been presided over by an apostle
named Morris Jessop, who is a much more stable and predictable individual than John Ray,
who was a veritable mad genius.

It has been very difficult to track John Ray since 1977, that is, until the advent of
the Internet. It seems he grew very fond of Hawaii and he spent several years living there
while he carved out a new life for himself. He left the United States permanently in 1989.
When I knew him, Ray seemed to have impressive academic credentials. He was a
mathematician and reportedly had been awarded a Doctorate of Science at Lafayette
University. He truly was an intellectual heavy-weight, although his sense of logic was
missing a few key elements. Over the years he collected several correspondance-school
doctorates and added a few questionable honorifics to his name. He even is alleged to have
been awarded a knighthood, although I have unable to determine who awarded him this honor.
He carried the obligatory "Sir" in front of his name along with this
recognition. For all I know, he was knighted by Queen Lateefa. But in his later life he
seems to have charmed even more suckers than during his fling as one of Rulon Allred's
Apostles. He was awarded the dubious degree of Doctor of Naturopathy in his
post-polygamous life. He developed a system of personal health that carried all of his
signature quackeries from the days in Pinesdale. He called this system <i>Body
Electronics</i> and it involved a specialized diet routine and his own bizarre
version of acupressure. He gave numerous seminars and made several video-tape lectures.

John Ray died in April, 2001 in New Zealand. He was visiting the home of a friend at
the time of his death at age 66 from a heart ailment. He had been residing in Queensland,
Australia at the time of his death. At his request he was cremated and his remains were
scattered at sea. He left behind a very large following of people who believed he was the
most highly skilled healer on the planet. He also left behind numerous children who saw
him for the last time in 1977. He had a profound effect on the lives of literally
thousands of people. He left an impact everywhere he went.

Although they are completely restricted from entering any LDS
temple (polygamists are excommunicated), Mormon Fundamentalists still believe that they
are the legitimate priesthood authority and are therefore the rightful caretakers. They
kneel facing the Salt Lake temple because that is the most important temple in Mormondom
(at least to them). Mormon Fundamentalists have very rigid prayer practices.

When I was living in Pinesdale, Montana, every morning at 6 AM a prayer session was held
in the schoolhouse. Proper prayer protocol was strictly observed in these sessions.
Polygamist Mormons have a strange obsession with kneeling upright, as opposed to the more
casual method commonly seen in the LDS Church where members frequently kneel in a more
comfortable manner by sitting back on their lower legs and ankles. It seems to me that the
polygamists believe that if one is too comfortable, then one isn't doing it correctly.

In these early-morning prayer sessions, it was required that all present repeat the words
of the prayer. One person is chosen to lead the prayer, and the prayer is given one
sentence at a time. The prayer leader then waits for everyone to repeat each sentence
before moving on. This made for long, uncomfortable prayer sessions. Often these sessions
lasted for fifteen minutes or more. One's lower legs often become numb after such a length
of time. I can only imagine the discomfort experienced by pregnant women, who are ever
present in any polygamist gathering. Oh, how I loathed these early morning prayer
sessions!

Most Mormon Fundamentalists adhere to these methods even in family prayer at home. When I
was engaged to my wife, we were visiting my parent's home and my father called us together
for prayer. When everyone was present, he instructed us to kneel facing the temple. My
wife was stunned by this, and she frantically started to whisper to me, inquiring as to
which temple we were required to face. I told her to just do what everyone else was doing.
My older brother's girlfriend was also present and was equally dumbstruck. She simply
started laughing. This took place over 16 years ago, and now I refuse to participate when
my family does this. They do not push the issue, and for many years now they have not
engaged in this prayer method when I am there. Instead they pray while gathered around the
dining room table, in the manner that is usually seen in an average LDS home. My family
has been aware of my strong opposition to their religious practices and now they alter
their behavior when I am present. I think they do this in hopes that I won't be driven
away. My two children, the oldest of whom is ten, have never seen my family pray in the
properly prescribed manner. Mormon Fundamentalists are instructed to kneel in prayer,
facing the Salt Lake Temple three times each day.

I suspect that these methods of prayer were practiced in the early LDS Church, around the
time of Brigham Young, but I have not been able to verify this.

Mormon polygamists scoff at LDS members for their tendency to utter prayers in a way that
indicates that the words are memorized. Every Mormon in Utah is familiar with the rapid
utterance of the blessing on the food. But even though they may scoff at this practice,
inevitably Mormon Fundamentalists engage in this behavior themselves, offering certain
appeals that are always present such as: "Please hasten the day in which the temple
doors will be opened to all worthy and righteous saints" and "please hasten the
day in which the blood of the prophets is avenged." Of course these pleas are rarely
uttered in proper English, and they tend to become arbitrary word strings that only
contain the key words. This indicates that the person offering the prayer is not
concentrating deeply enough, and often during sacrament meeting someone will get up and
complain indignantly about this. Fundamentalists also nit-pick over certain choices of
words uttered in prayer. For example, many shun the word "We come before
thee..." Instead they say "We present ourselves unto thee..." The claim is
that NOBODY comes before God. They also don't like it when someone refers to prayer as saying
the prayer, but instead they refer to is as asking the prayer. Many believe
that it is offensive to stray from this protocol.